'He punched the tactics board, cancelled Christmas and put the whole team up for sale' - what it's like inside a Chris Wilder dressing room

Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder has led the Blades from League One to the Premier League (Image: Getty Images)

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Speak to any United player right now and they will tell you the Blades boss's man management is as good as they have ever experienced.

Chris Basham even admitted he was 'missing the gaffer' when he spoke to the media from his home in Newcastle last week via Skype.

Wilder's ability to get the best out of players is one of the reasons why the United manager is one of the most successful in England over the past five years.

That ability to have the Blades performing at their maximum week in, week out, in the world's toughest division is the reason they are seventh in the Premier League.

The famous tale of how giving Billy Sharp money to buy a crate of beer for the players on the way home after defeat at Millwall helped kick-start this wonderful journey that we are all on is legendary.

So what exactly is it like to be managed by the man many people believe should be this season's Premier League manager of the year.

Gregor Robertson played for Wilder at Northampton, when the current Blades boss left promotion-chasing Oxford for the relegation-threatened Cobblers in 2014.

Wilder and Alan Knill had to summon every ounce of experience they had to pull off a miracle of keeping Town in the Football League.

Writing for the Times, Robertson gave a unique insight into how Wilder and Knill turned a team heading for certain relegation into title winners.

"When I signed for Northampton I’d been without a club for a fortnight," said Robertson. "Wilder had just left Oxford United for Northampton - a ballsy move given that he was leaving one team chasing the play-offs for another rooted to the foot of League Two.

"I was one of a host of 30-somethings recruited in a frantic final week of the transfer window. Valuable experience, yes. But more than that, he knew we would fight and scrap for our own futures in tandem with the club’s. It was a canny move and it worked. Just.

"What was clear from the moment you met Wilder, however, was that he’s a winner. That can sound like an empty statement but sometimes you play with or for someone for whom winning seems to matter that little bit more. They draw more out of those around them.

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"On a Saturday, Wilder was a bundle of fierce energy, ramping up the volume, baring his teeth, rousing and cajoling. He was never afraid to make the big decisions either.

"We secured League status by hook or by crook. Then we began work on trying to play some proper football. As a left back, when our centre half had the ball, I was told to hare forward down the line, while the midfield rotated and one of them dropped into the space I vacated to get on the ball.

"We worked constantly on switching play quickly. There was plenty of thought, but producing it on the pitch regularly was a different matter. The difference now, as Knill admitted to me recently and which I’m not too precious to reveal, is they have players who can bring their vision to life."

While the Millwall beer story is perhaps Wilder's most famous at Bramall Lane, there are two moments in particular that stand out for Robertson.

He said: "The first came after a 3-2 home defeat against Plymouth Argyle in mid-December. At full-time, Wilder let rip. We deserved it. He landed a punch on the tactics board, sending it crashing off its stand, blue and red magnets scattering across the changing room floor.

"The players’ Christmas party in Birmingham was planned that weekend. Instead, we were told to report to the stadium at 8am on Sunday morning. A bar crawl on Broad Street was replaced by laps of the pitch at Sixfields.

"A couple of weeks later, after another two defeats, we played Tranmere Rovers at Prenton Park. We’d dropped to 19th in League Two. In the hotel the night before the game, everyone was a told to meet at the bar at 8.30pm. We arrived to find a tray full of beers, bought by Wilder.

"There was no choice in the matter. Another round followed. Much like Brian Clough, who insisted on his Nottingham Forest team having a few drinks the night before the European Cup final, he was trying to lighten the mood, ease fraying nerves.